Stallone speaks out against piracy
August 11, 2014
By Colin Mann
Movie veteran Sylvester Stallone has spoken out about the effect of piracy on the industry, warning that people involved will lose their jobs. Meanwhile Lions Gate, distributor of the actor’s latest film, is taking legal steps to identify those responsible for the title being made available illegally.
Speaking to the UK’s Sky News as part of the promotional tour for action sequel The Expendables 3, Stallone said: “I understand people want to get something for nothing. Who doesn’t? But it affects the fact that studios will start to lose confidence and they won’t put big, big numbers in and a lot of people lose their jobs. It’s a ripple effect.”
Speaking separately at the film’s London première, Stallone said that piracy made him “really sad”, but he understood that a lot of people had accepted that was “a kind of a way of life. I think it’s unfortunate because it isn’t about me. I’m okay, but there’s thousands of people that won’t make movies. They won’t get a chance because they’ve lost a lot of money. That’s the trouble.”
Reports suggest that the title had been pirated some two weeks before its theatrical release, with Excipio, a firm that tracks illegal downloading, suggesting that more than 2 million downloads of the film have occurred.
Lions Gate, the film’s distributor, has moved to combat the online piracy, August 8th being granted a motion of preliminary injunction by a US District in Los Angeles. The move follows a temporary restraining order by Meadows against a handful of torrent sites that were hosting the movie.
Lions Gate has asked for permission to make Google, GoDaddy and other domain-name and server companies provide the studio with details of those running the offending sites.
It is also understood that a US federal investigation has been opened into the source of the illegal downloads. The Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement has reportedly responded to Lions Gate’s request to law-enforcement agencies to help in locating the pirates.